Housing

The California Housing Finance Agency has forged partnerships with two federal agencies to provide lower interest rates to multifamily developers as a way to encourage more affordable housing.

First-time homebuyers between 2010 and 2013 were slightly younger than in the previous four-year period, according to Zillow.

New-home construction climbed in July to the highest level in almost eight years, indicating the industry will pick up in the second half of the year.

J.G. Wentworth Co. has begun a marketing campaign to call attention to its new home-lending business.

The Houston housing market still runs the risk of a pullback, based on a range of economic conditions affecting the city, according to Fitch Ratings.

Confidence among homebuilders climbed in August to the highest level in almost a decade, indicating the residential real estate market is making strides.

Four more Federal Home Loan Banks have won regulatory approval to participate in a program that allows member institutions to sell jumbo mortgage loans through a conduit to Redwood Trust.

Americans living in rentals spent almost a third of their incomes on housing in the second quarter, the highest share in recent history.

Wells Fargo's head of mortgage lending, Mike Heid, will retire in October. The San Francisco company will promote Franklin Codel, head of mortgage production, to succeed Heid as head of Wells Fargo Home Lending.

Consumers' growing confidence about their ability to qualify for a mortgage is generating more foot traffic, sales orders and loan volume for some of the nation's largest homebuilders.

Refinance application volume for the week ended Aug. 7 reached its highest level since the end of May, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.

Home shoppers in San Francisco needed incomes of $267,780 to become owners of a typical house in the second quarter as prices soared to a record.

Homeowners and appraisers are getting farther apart on their perceptions of housing values, according to Quicken Loans.

Home prices rose in the vast majority of U.S. metro areas in the second quarter, according to the National Association of Realtors.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development fined two Texas lenders for charging bogus fees to borrowers purchasing manufactured housing.

A New York law that was invalidated by a federal judge was one of many efforts by big cities to pressure banks into making more investments in local communities after the crisis. Some municipal laws could be more vulnerable to bankers' legal challenges than others.

Walter Investment Management in Tampa, Fla., said its second-quarter loss widened, as it recorded a goodwill impairment charge in its reverse mortgage division.

A federal judge has overturned a New York City law that would have required banks to make new disclosures regarding their investments in local communities.

PennyMac Mortgage Financial Services reported a rise in income on higher servicing and origination revenue.

Essent Guaranty did $7.23 billion of new insurance written in the second quarter, the second highest volume in the company's brief existence.